When the Appalachian Mountain Club opens its huts for full service Wednesday for the 2015 season, its Lakes of the Clouds Hut will celebrate 100 years of service.

Mizpah Spring Hut will turn 50.

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These two high mountain hikers' huts join another six operated by AMC along a 56-mile-long stretch of the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire's White Mountains. The huts are off the grid, just as they were when they were created, but now operate using environmentally-sustainable systems such as solar and wind power.

Rob Burbank, director of media and public affairs for the AMC, said this season will be special for the two huts, located about 4.5 miles from each other.

The AMC hut system is the oldest system of mountain huts for hikers in America.

It got its start in 1888 when the club built a stone hut at an elevation of 4,800 feet in the saddle between Mounts Adams and Madison.

The original hut is gone, but other versions of huts have been built in its place in intervening years.

The current Madison Spring Hut was rebuilt in 2010 and reopened for the 2011 season.

The huts are open to all. Access is via the Appalachian Trail and hiking trails leading from roadside trailheads.

Many hikers travel to the AMC huts with groups of families and friends.

An increasingly popular option is to join a Guided Lodge-to-Hut or Hut-to-Hut Adventure.

Led by AMC guides, these programs provide participants with the opportunity to travel with a group and learn about the natural history and human history along the trail. Among the huts visited in this year's guided programs are Lakes of the Clouds on the shoulder of Mount Washington and Mizpah Spring.